My Friend Over the Phone

Chapter 21

Dream wandered aimlessly around his brother's castle. For the first time in a long time, he was at a loss of what to do. It was, for the first time in centuries, peaceful for him. No job, no worry, no overwhelming dread. And, the worst part, he had no one to talk to. No Ink, and he didn't want to bother Blue anymore than he already has now that he has plenty more responsibilities to share with Error. Killer was always good company of course, but he wanted something to do on his own. Give his boyfriend some alone time. A job? No, he's never gone to school before; there's no way he could get a good job with his current education level. Besides, Nightmare was always the smarter one of the two of them. Social gatherings of some sort? Nah, word has most likely already been spread that he left the Star Sanses, and he'd rather not have a hundred reporters in his face about it right now. He'd rather avoid any social interaction with the public until the hype dies down. So what could he do? He wanted something to work on, something interesting to him that'll keep him busy enough to not think about any of that.

But what?

He tried to think back to how he used to spend his time within his first century of life. Socializing, more socializing...his brother would sometimes give him educated lessons on the things he asked him about. "Brother, how come the days in summer are longer than the days in winter?" "Brother, why do certain foods go bad or get moldy if you don't eat it after a certain amount of time?" "Why does lightning and thunder happen when it rains, brother? In fact, why does it even rain at all?"

"...Why don't the people of our village like you, brother?"

He shook his head, trying to move away from that memory. Think, think. What else could he do?

"Was it something you said? Or did, perhaps?"

He continued walking down the East Wing, an part of the castle that went unused by Nightmare, other than housing the items who he assumed belonged to the previous owner of the castle.

"Something I said, maybe..?"

He thought back to the things everyone had told him about their recent lives. Anything he could possibly be concerned about? Something that might take a while to figure out, but be fun and possibly rewarding nonetheless? Or perhaps something to simply help, big or small?

"I want them to like you. I like you. So why don't they? They usually agree with everything I say."

He felt his cellular vibrate in his pocket again. Blue had heard about the kind of-argument between he and Ink, and was worried sick. He had yet to respond to any of his texts.

"...I dunno."

It made him remember something. That anonymous friend of his brother's. He wanted to know who that was, and he could tell Nightmare wanted to know as well, even if he never said so.

He smiled. That's something to do.

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When he asked Dream what he was doing, he immediately smiled and responded with "Nothing, brother! You go on with your day!" And left. Something was going on. He wondered what was going on with him over the course of...how long has it been since they first started this truce? Goodness, it's been almost a year! It felt like it had flown by so fast! It felt to him like not much more than a week had passed, even though so much had transpired. The things that had happened were all good things, so maybe that's why it feels like it hasn't been that long at all. It felt so odd to think that New Year's Eve was coming soon. It was the 7th of December, so it'd be in about a month. He could plan a party of sorts among his friends and family later. His brother was currently his first priority.